Sideswipe: April 5: Go in the draw

A sign spotted in Auckland. Photo / Supplied

"I hope they clean the blade between jobs," says Cameron, who spotted this sign on an Auckland street.

It really does pay to shop around

"My large, double-door fridge/freezer packed up, a serviceman quoting $1000 to $1500 to fix," writes Don Edwards. "He told me to look for a new one for around $2000. First shop - Noel Leeming, ticket price $2699, down to $2498, delivered, for cash. (reasonable deal). Next stop, Harvey Norman, same fridge, same deal, price, $2173 (even better). On to The Appliance Shed. Same deal, price $1745 (Wow! I snapped their hands off). Well worth the effort for a saving of $753."

BNZ does the time warp

"When setting up a direct credit payment, I scrolled down BNZ's list of what payments were for or the occupation of the recipient," writes Roger. "One of the categories was 'Television licence'. How long is it since that fee was abolished? Another was 'Milkman'. Hello ... ? Time BNZ looked at this list and revised it."

'I'm too sexy for my friends'

The Daily Mail created a flurry across the media landscape after a story on 41-year-old married TV producer Samantha Brick, bemoaning that because she's so good-looking, other women don't like her. Unable to differentiate between personal experience and universal truths, Ms Brick says: "I'm not smug and I'm no flirt, yet over the years I've been dropped by countless friends who felt threatened if I was merely in the presence of their other halves." In the ensuing Twitter storm (about 2500 tweets per hour at its peak), and in the 4500 MailOnline comments, many said she needed a reality check, others defended her. This was one of the more generous comments: "How sad to see the trolls sniping at her from'neath their gloomy bridges, they can NEVER touch her however! Sail on serenely beautiful Ms Brick, you deserve to laugh in the face of the jealous beasts".

More dating disasters ...

1. "On a first date with a guy, we went to a bar that was having a karaoke night. He decided to give it a go, which was bad enough because he wasn't much of a singer. His song choice? 'Let's Get Physical'. Needless to say, we didn't."

2. "I once dated a guy who told me to stop viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses. He gave me the book American Psycho to open my eyes to the real world. I read what I could stomach of the book and then declined all further dates."